The tech employment landscape of 2019 will seemingly be similar to last year, with jobs in data science, software development, and cloud administration high in demand in different industries

As more businesses continue using technology to improve part or all of their operations, related positions are expected to be at the forefront of the job market in 2019.

Traditional companies have begun resembling tech companies, and as employers across various industries such as healthcare and finance continue to implement new tech to streamline their workflows and boost their business, the demand for qualified talent to helm the new innovations will also continue to rise.

Then there are also companies and industries taking shape as a result of new tech. According to a report commissioned by Google and Temasek, the internet economy in Southeast Asia is projected to create 1.7 million full-time jobs by 2025, mostly as a result of projected growth in e-commerce logistics, ride-hailing, and food delivery services.

The evolution of industries via tech, and the innovations themselves, are doing so at a pace where annual trends predictions can seem out-of-date even before a quarter of a year is over. While tech-based careers don’t become outdated at the same rate, they do evolve, and savvy tech pros recognize that most jobs nowadays never stay the same. Thus, modern tech pros are constantly learning, out of necessity if not desire.

What does this mean for you? It means making sure you keep updated with technology trends, are mindful of what new skills to learn, and have a good idea of what tech jobs will be trending in the foreseeable future.

Many companies now have the capacity to collect data, and are subsequently aiming to increase their own proprietary research information, along with incorporating third-party data with their own to best understand their market or industries. In order to do so, employers need employees who can effectively collect, organize, and analyze large volumes of data, as well as communicate their findings well and offer recommendations to others in the business.

In an increasingly data-driven economy, data scientists are vital to every organization and is surely a career that will continue to trend beyond 2019. Aspiring data scientists must be mindful that the jobs require a number of competencies, which are also constantly evolving as the profession continues to grow. At present, employers prefer data scientists with experience and expertise in various tools like SQL, Objective C, JavaScript, and Tableau, to name a few.

Artificial intelligence refers to computer systems built to imitate human intelligence and perform tasks such as the recognition of images or speech patterns, assessment of business risk, and prediction and scheduling maintenance. As businesses relentlessly try to figure out ways to minimize costs by optimizing their practices and automating processes to make daily operations easier, A.I. engineers will continue to see great demand.

A.I. is part of automation, which is a contentious topic because of its potential to replace some jobs. According to a study by Cisco and Oxford Economics, about 6.6 million jobs in Southeast Asia are likely to become "redundant" within a decade due to automation. However, automation is also creating jobs, especially through AI. “Reworking the Revolution”, an Accenture report released in January 2018, has estimated that new applications of A.I. could boost worldwide employment by much as 10% by 2020.

A subset of A.I., machine learning is when computers are programmed to learn to do something they are not programmed to do, and discover patterns and insights from data. Often used for data analytics, data mining, and pattern recognition, as well as powering web search results, real-time ads and network intrusion detection; machine learning and its related applications is a market which experts predict to be worth $8.1 million by 2022.

While categorized under A.I., the technology has subsets of its own, each offering opportunities in specialized engineering careers with substantial growth potential. Among these subsets are neural networks, natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning, to name a few, and with more likely to come about as machine learning evolves.

An increasing number of companies are moving away from siloed back-end and front-end development teams, requiring them to hire developers who can work on all levels of the application stack. While full-stack developers have knowledge in every stage of software development, they aren’t necessarily required to be experts in every area, but should at least possess working knowledge of the key principles of development.

Along with the development principles behind servers, networks, hosting, relational and nonrelational databases, QA, APIs, UX and UI design, and security, employers needing full-stack developers typically lean towards those who possess the experience and the capability to work with varying client or business requirements.

An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language that emphasizes code readability, Python continues to rank among the world’s most popular design languages. According to Stack Overflow, the world's largest online community site for developers, Python is the world’s fastest-growing programming language, with increased use in a wide range of developer job roles and data science positions across industries.

Used in just about every domain, such as system operations, web development, deployment, and scientific modeling, Python continues to prove to be a very versatile programming language. Despite it already having a large developer community, the demand for Python developers is considerably larger, an encouraging sign for those aspiring to learn and build a career off of the programming language.

While other programming languages such as Python continue to see extensive growth, Java continues to be the choice for most enterprises. According to research from the Cloud Foundry Foundation, the organization behind its namesake open-source multi-cloud application platform, companies use a mix of multiple languages due to the shift to more agile and flexible technologies. However, Java and JavaScript still seems to top the list.

Although as many as 25 total languages were mentioned in the research, many were in the single-digit percentage of use. Also, despite large companies using more languages overall, the report found that Java still stood out among respondents in North America, Europe, and Asia. Java and JavaScript have been business stalwarts for a long time, so would-be developers would do well to learn them, and job-seekers with Java expertise and experience can continue to build a career around the two.

While cloud computing is comparatively better established than some of the other previously mentioned technologies, many companies are still struggling in integrating cloud computing into their business. With cloud projected be part of just about every major industry, employers continue to look high and low for experienced cloud engineers, architects, and administrators to work on their respective companies’ system.

Cloud professionals typically work using Amazon Web Services, OpenStack, Microsoft Azure, and other popular cloud services, and possess a strong understanding of programming languages, APIs, DevOps, automation and cloud databases, which in itself make them few and far between for employers. As the cloud infrastructure market looks eventually replace traditional data centers, businesses will increasingly need cloud professionals.

Kalibrr is a technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, the company continues to attract the best talents from all over, with 1.6 million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 18,000 clients, and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.